Public allegations and counter-allegations that had raged for several months in 2021 during the reign of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra, following the bomb scare at industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence Antilia, are again roiling politics in the state. The dramatis personae are the same: NCP (SP) leader and then state home minister Anil Deshmukh, who is considered close to Sharad Pawar; BJP leader and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis; former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh; and dismissed police officer Sachin Waze, who is currently behind bars. What has spiced up matters is the timing of the case, ahead of the Assembly elections, and the fact that Deshmukh and Fadnavis both belong to Nagpur. What is the case? It goes back to the MVA government, when Deshmukh was the Home Minister, Param Bir was the Mumbai Police Commissioner and Waze had been reinstated in the Mumbai Police after serving a 16-year suspension over the Khwaja Yunus custodial death case. In February 2021, a bomb was discovered in a car parked outside Antilia. While Param Bir and Deshmukh were on good terms before this episode, in the heat generated following the bomb scare, the minister shunted Param Bir as Mumbai chief, alleging that he had kept the MVA government in the dark over the facts of the case. What started off the chain of charges and counter-charges? Soon after he had been removed as Mumbai Police chief, Param Bir wrote a letter to then CM Uddhav Thackeray, alleging Deshmukh had set a target of collection of Rs 100 crore in bribes per month from shops and establishments in Mumbai. The resultant uproar saw Deshmukh resign as Home Minister, with the Enforcement Directorate and CBI registering FIRs against him. In November 2021, Deshmukh was arrested. Waze became approver in the CBI case against Deshmukh, and confirmed the allegations made by Param Bir against the former minister. Deshmukh then alleged that Waze was backing Param Bir’s statement as the two were very close, and that while in office, the junior police officer would report directly to the Mumbai Police chief, bypassing hierarchy. Deshmukh was behind bars for more than a year, before being released on bail in December 2022. He remains on bail, with the trial in the cases yet to begin. In March 2021, Waze was arrested over the bomb scare case and the killing of Mansukh Hiran, the owner of the car in which the explosive had been discovered. He remains behind bars in the case. How did the issue flare up again? It started with Shyam Manav, founder of the Akhil Bharatiya Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti (All India Superstition Eradication Committee), claiming on July 24 that Fadnavis had pressured Deshmukh when the latter was the Home Minister to give affidavits against four leaders of the ruling MVA alliance if he wanted to avoid action by Central agencies against him. It’s not clear how Manav, who claims to have said this earlier as well, is linked to the events, except that he too is from Nagpur. When Deshmukh was asked at a press conference the same day about this, he confirmed it. He alleged that a close aide of Fadnavis, Samit Kadam, had approached him saying that if he gave a statement implicating then CM Uddhav Thackeray, his son Aaditya, Sena leader Anil Parab and NCP (undivided) leader Ajit Pawar, Central agencies would not act against him. Deshmukh claimed that he refused to do so, leading to his arrest by the ED and CBI. He also threatened to make public videos of Kadam visiting him. How has the BJP responded? Fadnavis has rubbished the allegations, saying Deshmukh was just trying to create a narrative and threatening, in turn, to make public some incriminating video clips of Deshmukh. The Deputy CM also said that the Central agencies had acted against Deshmukh solely on the basis of Param Bir’s letter accusing him of taking bribes. The BJP has accused Deshmukh of raking up the case now to drive a wedge between the Mahayuti allies, by implying that Fadnavis wanted to frame then united NCP leader Ajit Pawar, who is now in the NDA camp. What has the MVA said? Deshmukh now says Param Bir, the former Mumbai Police chief, was himself the mastermind of the Antilia case. The NIA that is probing the case has questioned Param Bir and mentioned him in the chargesheet, but he has not been named as an accused. Deshmukh has also alleged that, in order to save his skin in the Antilia case, Param Bir had struck a deal with Fadnavis, as part of which he made the allegations against Deshmukh. MVA leaders have backed Deshmukh, alleging a bid to tar the NCP (SP) leader’s name. They point out how the charges against Deshmukh coincided with the release in the public domain of a CBI closure report in a case filed against a close Fadnavis aide, Girish Mahajan, during MVA time. The CBI report accused Deshmukh of “pressuring” police to book Mahajan. What is the other chain of these charges? On July 30, Waze, who is in judicial custody, told a news agency and wrote a letter to Fadnavis alleging that when he was with the Crime Intelligence Unit of the Mumbai Police, Deshmukh as Home Minister pressured him to carry out illegal activities.
